Hits of the week in Miami-Post #1

As you know, the art fairs are overwhelming. We saw six fairs and two collections plus some stuff sprinkled around Miami. Here’s what wowed us. We’re starting with sculpture and 2D favorites. Next post we’ll do some videos. We went down to the fairs looking for trends but couldn’t find them since there are so many being worked on all at once–the economy, politics, love, death, hate, women, survival, ecology and just having fun. Things seemed to be selling well from what we could tell. People were happy but a little lost in all the aisles of art.  One trend we saw was a lot of iPhone camera action.

Geza Szollosi's friendly taxidermy cow head at Mauger

Geza Szolosi at Scope Mauger Modern Art (Bath)–Hungarian artist with lovable cow head that he taxidermied by himself..We had Murakami thoughts–death leavened by supersweet. Also political prayer rugs mixing east and west pop culture graphics.

Erwin Wurm, Cajetan, at Thaddeus Ropac, patina on brass

Subodh Gupta, cast aluminum car, ed. of 3. "Doot"

Erwin Wurm at ABMB Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, ABMB–Beautiful cast aluminum headless human figures combine material perfection with human imperfection. Subodh Gupta at Hauser and Wirth, using aluminum, sticks to perfect.

Valerie Blass at Parisian Laundry. S'il te plait (please), ceramic object with flocking $7,000 28" high 2009. Touche de bois (knock on wood) (pants in rear) 36" high $5,500 wood, pants and pigment 2009

Valerie Blass at Nada Parisian Laundry — There was something feminist and fashionable about her big Alien-like figures with dark patinas and twisted Goth qualities. Sci-fi surreal nightmares in seductive packages.

Airan Kang, Installation of LED-lit book sculpture

Airan Kang at Bryce Wolkowitz, Pulse–Better than Jolly Ranchers, these LED light sculptures of books by the Korean artist were almost sold out the first day of the fair. Each book $4000-4500. Resin shells contain book dust jackets and electronic innards. Each book has a changing spectrum of colors. The book pyramid had moving headlines from Edgar Allen Poe. This work makes our hits list for its visual beauty.

Joana Vasconcelos "Joselito" 2009 Faience Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, acrylic painted. hand-made cotton crochet work. galeria Horrach Moya 65x54x61 cm

Crocheted cow head at ABMB Joana Vasconcelos “Joselito” at Galeria Horrach Moya feminized a ceramic bull’s head with spectacular crochet work.

James Lee Byars, gold ball in bell jar at Michael Werner

James Lee Byars at ABMB, Michael Werner. Om with a sense of humor. Gold ball in a bell jar. The whole installation looked great and fresh as tomorrow.

Dealing with otherness

Henry Bermudez, detail from his new Batman series of paintings

Henry Bermudez at Red Dot Projects Gallery’s second booth. Bermudez, an artist born in Venezuela (he lives in Philadelphia now) has taken a new tack. He told us he wanted to get into the real American world for a change from his ornate spiritual art. So what’s real? Comics, the source material for many artists these days. Batman is on assignment from Obama to fix Latin America. Can he find Honduras? Hilarious.

Kerry James Marshall, Frankenstein, 2009 Acrylic on pvc 85 x 61 inches. Photo courtesy of gallery

Kerry James Marshall, Bride of Frankenstein, 2009 Acrylic on pvc 85 x 61 inches. Photo courtesy of gallery.

Kerry James Marshall — ABMB Shainman–Marshall socks us in the eyes with a new version of the stereotype of the scary black guy. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, literally…the Hulk is what we thought. Thumbs up on this risky work.

Robert Bergman at Yossi Milo and a group of 20th century German photos at Kicken–both at ABMB–were also great.

Roberta and Libby’s great videos hits coming soon.